PINELLAS COUNTY, Florida (PNN) - March 2, 2012 - A deputy with the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office is under heavy scrutiny this week after admitting that he impersonated a Progress Energy employee in order to search a Florida man's property for marijuana.
Pig thug Detective Paul Giovannoni borrowed a uniform from a Progress Energy employee with the criminal intent of knocking on the homeowner's front door and sniffing his vestibule for traces of marijuana. Instead, reports the Tampa Bay Times, the resident asked Giovannoni to come around to the side of his property and take a look at his power meter.
Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gaultieri condemned Giovannoni's behavior:
"I was appalled by it," said Gualtieri. "I think it's wrong. It's not what we should have been doing at all." He said he did not know of the incident until contacted this week by the Times.
Gualtieri said that he instituted a new policy Wednesday preventing deputies from using corporate uniforms without permission from their own supervisors and "express written permission of that corporate entity."
Gualtieri also told the Tampa Bay Times that Giovannoni's actions were "contrary to good policing and respecting individual rights and it's wrong." However, the sheriff doesn't yet know if he'll discipline Giovannoni, "a young detective" who was "just being creative," or Giovannoni's direct supervisor, a corporal who thought it was OK to have Giovannoni play Fletch (title character from a Chevy Chase movie) sans warrant "because Progress Energy would have the right to go up to their own meter during normal business hours to do it, so that's where I was falling under the assumption that he would be able to do that."
A spokesperson for Progress Energy, which fired the employee who lent his uniform to the detective, told the Times that the company "doesn't permit or support anyone, including law enforcement, to pose as employees."
Ed. Note: When a pig thug cop does something illegal then he should be imprisoned for the maximum amount of time allowed by law. If the Sheriff won’t fire him and put him in jail, then the people should pick him up when he is at his home, whisk him away, let the people hold a trial, and then if convicted, execute sentence upon him. Sentences for government pig thugs should be harsher than for ordinary citizens. Revolution Now! Independence Forever!